Home

Do you love Bitches? By ‘BITCH” we mean: Being In Total Charge of Herself. Join us, Idelisse Malavé and Joanne Sandler, Two Old Bitches from New York, as we celebrate kick-ass, unstoppable women over 50. They’re defiant and make their own rules – whether it’s about politics, love, sex, work, family or fashion. They explode myths about gender and aging and re-define what it means to be a woman at any age. Let their fearlessness inspire yours!

YES WE CAN CAN

Who the hell are we?

Idelisse Malavé, 71, has been honing her bitchcraft for decades. A working class Puerto Rican immigrant raised in a middle-class, mostly Jewish, Brooklyn neighborhood, she graduated from Columbia Law School, defying expectations of who and what she could be to become a fierce social justice activist. After practicing public interest law in the 70s and 80s, she went on to lead progressive organizations – as Vice President of the Ms. Foundation and Executive Director of Tides Foundation – and wrote two books, Mother Daughter Revolution (Bantam) and Latino Stats (The New Press). Liberated from full-time leadership jobs (although, yes, she still consults to support her profound shopping habit), Idelisse is now free to exercise her greatest asset: asking provocative questions that lead to thoughts and ideas you didn't even know you had. Her motto these days is: “If it pleases me, I will.”

Joanne Sandler, 67, is on an endless journey to find her bitchy voice. She’s written articles and books about serious stuff -- like Gender at Work (Routledge), How Feminists Change Bureaucracies and Bureaucracies Change Feminists (Oxford Press), Women’s Rights Have No Country (OpenDemocracy) -- but for some strange reason, mainstream publishers and producers have yet to see the brilliance of her political essays, satirical musicals or scripts for TV thrillers. (Her psychic says she’ll be ‘discovered’ soon). A lifelong feminist, Joanne was ‘institutionalized’ for nearly two decades (as Deputy Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women-UNIFEM -- and many other women’s rights organizations). She’s traveled to more than 65 countries and -- now freed from full-time employment -- Joanne indulges her passions: podcasting, consulting (as a senior associate for Gender at Work), altered states and feminist fantasies. Her lifelong motto still applies ”Always leave while you’re still having a good time!”